We were joined this evening by Steve Evans a member of the Rotary Club of Ironbridge. Steve has long been involved with the development of Rotary's international programme but had come to talk to the Club about the work of the Village Water charity in advance of World Water Day on the 22nd March.
Billions of people lack access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation. Village Water provides hygiene education and sustainable water for rural villages in western Zambia. The charity installs protected shallow wells with manual water pumps that allow the people to draw uncontaminated water from underground.
Diarrhoea is one of the leading causes of infant mortality in Zambia and a major contributor to malnutrition. Village Water will only install pumps in villages where the community agrees to implement measures to provide for the safe disposal of human waste, and to adopt basic hygiene practices such as hand washing with soap in order to break the cycle of disease transmission for diarrhoea, particularly amongst children under five.
To date, Village Water has succeeded in helping over 75,000 people in 326 villages, each with either a new or rehabilitated well and with around 20 pit latrines for toilets, with hand washing, refuse pits and plate and vegetable racks to keep the food off the ground - and this has had a dramatic impact upon the health of the people. All the sanitation work is undertaken by the people themselves with Village Water providing cement and other materials.
Our thanks to Steve for his work in promoting the work of this very worthwhile charity and rest assured that we shall be supporting its work over the coming year.
